Pioneers and Illuminators – by Greg Albrecht
Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind… – lyrics from “Windmills of Your Mind,” the theme song from the 1968 movie, “The Thomas Crown Affair.”
In the era when European ships were too slow and too heavy to travel very far, Prince Henry of Portugal started to explore the African coast, a world largely unknown to Europeans at the time. Following his vision of discovering new vistas and opportunities Henry became a pioneer in the construction of the caravel – a new and lighter sailing ship able to travel farther and faster.
Now known as Henry the Navigator, the patron of Portuguese exploration, Henry ensured that his dreams did not terminate with his own efforts. He founded what eventually became the University of Lisbon, so that others might be trained and equipped to discover new worlds of their own. Because Henry was willing to reach out and dream, his efforts literally enlarged the known world of that day and age. Henry’s discoveries meant new maps created by cartographers invited one and all to a new world.
Henry realized that progress in transportation and exploration would never happen unless and until there was a change in the status quo. Henry was not content to spend his life retracing the same old paths others had taken, forever going around in the circles formed by the limitations of the windmills of his mind.
When I think of going around and around in a circle, the first image that comes to mind is of religious hamster wheels that confine the boundaries of so many who find themselves spiritually incarcerated. Wearied, miserable, imprisoned souls endlessly go around and around on hamster-like wheels, assuming they are obeying God. Trapped by Christ-less religion, they perform the same repetitive tasks and ceremonies and rituals, doing the same thing over and over again, hoping for a different result (as you may know, that’s one of the definitions of insanity).
You may remember the story of Sisyphus from Greek mythology, the king of the area known in the New Testament as Corinth. Because of the manipulative and deceitful way in which Sisyphus ruined so many lives, the Greek god Zeus sentenced Sisyphus to Hades, dooming him forever with the impossible task of trying to roll a boulder up a steep hill. Today we speak of a Sisyphean task as an incessantly recurring exercise in futility.
You and I, by God’s grace, have been released from religious confinement and captivity and from incessant, meaningless and endless exercises in futility, trying to please and appease God. Jesus has rescued us, healing our hearts and enlarging our minds. We have been released from narrow and restrictive religious prison cells. The grace and love given in the eternity of the kingdom of God has expanded our horizons to a world without end, so that we no longer exist in futility, doomed by the restraints and restrictions of dark and dreary religious dungeons.
- When we are free in Christ, we follow the One who has taken captivity captive (see Ephesians 2:8 and Colossians 2:15).
- When we are free in Christ, we are no longer subject to religious tyranny and tyrants.
- When we are free in Christ, the way of life he lives in us is one of enlivening, encouraging and equipping others – he leads us to pass on the grace of God that has been given to us.
As religious refugees free in Christ, following him by faith alone, grace alone and Christ alone, the very love of God flows in and through us so that we serve in his name. Because Jesus enables and enlivens us to pass on his grace to others we can and do pass on his grace individually, and we can also pool our prayers and resources so that we might more effectively proclaim and broadcast the gospel.
Henry the Navigator realized a way to expand the world that he knew, so that through escaping the limitations of endlessly inhabiting and re-living the mistakes of others, his world might be improved. Because of Henry the Navigator many experienced personal, spiritual and economic growth. Henry literally caused the maps of the world into which he was born and in which he lived to be updated and expanded. Beyond that, he used new technology to build more effective ships and provided training opportunities to pass on the same vision, zeal and creativity.
By God’s grace, you and I are joining forces to do a similar thing through the outreach ministries of CWR/PTM. This worldwide work in which all of us are involved as team members is a Christ-centered media ministry pioneering, pushing back religiously imposed boundaries and the stale spiritual status quo of indoctrination that holds people captive.
CWR/PTM is one of the Christ-centered media ministries using technological advances to do more with less. We have a handful of employees who work under one roof here in Southern California, but we have many other writers, authors and editors who labor with us, telecommuting from all over North America. We are using as many of the creative means available to communicate, expand, enlarge and share all Jesus all the time.
We publish two magazines, books and resources the “old fashioned” hardcopy way and mail them in the “old fashioned” way through postal services. But we also provide digital and audio resources all over the world, via the Internet. We are reaching a worldwide audience though the Internet, so that many follow, listen to and read us on desktop computers as well as laptops, tablets, Smart phones and other devices.
Our CWR/PTM website is creative, entertaining, captivating and is continually refreshed and updated. By God’s grace, with you and so many others on our team, we are creatively and dynamically contextualizing the Kingdom of God to an everchanging world. In the name of the Good Samaritan we welcome, embrace and provide for those who have been wounded, abandoned and thrown overboard by institutionalized, Christ-less religion. We proclaim the unconditional, unlimited love of God. To the captives and slaves of bad news religion, who have only known an angry god who is bent on violence, a god who must be pleased and appeased, a god who punishes and tortures people in hell forever, we share the good news that God is beyond the boundaries of the spiritual world they have inhabited.
You might not think of yourself as a navigator, but your involvement with our ongoing work and mission means you are helping to pass on the love and grace of God to many around the world who are enslaved in religious swamps and hell holes.You are helping CWR/PTM reveal the spiritual world in which God, in Christ, has revealed himself. You are not only a pioneer and an explorer – you are not only an innovator and navigator – you are also an illuminator!
One moment there had been nothing but darkness; next moment a thousand points of light leaped out. – C.S. Lewis, “The Magician’s Nephew,” published in 1955.
During his inaugural address on January 20, 1989, George Herbert Walker Bush said, “I have spoken of a thousand points of light, of all the community organizations that are spread like stars throughout the nation, doing good.”
Of course, when President Bush and C.S. Lewis spoke of a thousand points of light they did not have a definite and specific number in mind. They used thousand to speak of a number beyond counting and calculation [as an aside, this is specifically the way in which John the Apostle wrote of “the thousand years” in Revelation 20. This is the only place in the Bible in which such a period of time is spoken, and sadly, some have used it to construct a belief about a literal thousand-year reign of Jesus here on earth – also called the millennium. No such meaning is intended by the Bible – but this would not be the first time when folks have taken some passage, phrase or even a word out of its literary context and constructed a belief system the Bible never intended!
In a similar way that President Bush spoke of organizations that were a thousand points of light, I think of you, dear reader and friend, as one of the “thousand points of light” who band together to support the ongoing work of CWR/PTM. With the Apostle John, C.S. Lewis and President Bush, as they used the term thousand so too do I speak of our collective efforts as a thousand points of light – many who come together, by God’s grace, as illuminators. My fellow PTM friend and partner, you and I are one of a thousand points of light who collectively work together, coming together to accomplish more, in the name of Jesus, as a group, than we could do on our own! We join together as volunteers and as co-workers, combining the light we individually reflect so that the great Light of Jesus might be reflected through our combined efforts to a dark world.
Our collective team is composed of thousands of Pioneers and Illuminators – and YOU ARE ONE OF THEM! For whatever this year may hold, individually and collectively, we thank God for mercifully allowing us to pass on his grace, serving him, in the name of Jesus! We are truly serving in His Majesty’s Service!
Serving the One and Only King,
Greg Albrecht
Friend and Partner Letter from January 2016
At PTM, we hope our blog posts, web resources, and magazines help strengthen, comfort, and encourage you. Digital copies are freely given to be freely shared. Please subscribe and consider a donation to help us create and share uplifting content. Blessings! (CLICK here to donate)
Plain Truth Ministries | Box 300 | Pasadena, CA 91129-0300
